THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



Nos. 80 & 81.] AUGUST, MDCCCLXX. [Price Is. 



Irish Insect-hunting Grounds, By Edwin Birchall, Esq. 



No. 6. — The County Wicklow. * 



" Oh, when I am safe in my sylvan homCj 

 I mock at the pride of Greece and Eome ; 

 And when I am stretched heneath the pinesj 

 Where the evening star so holy shines, 

 I laugh at the lore and pride of man, # 



At the sophist school and the learned clan ; 

 For what are they all in their high conceit, 

 When man in the bush with God may meet ? " 



Emmerson. 



As a field for Entomology the county Wicklow scarcely 

 realizes the anticipations which its varied and beautiful 

 features inspire ; but still I believe a larger number of Lepi- 

 doptera have been observed within its limits than in any 

 other county of Ireland. 



A chain of granite mountains crosses the county, and 

 occupies more than half its area, the summits ranging from 

 2000 to 3000 feet in height. The insect population of these 

 elevated districts is very limited in extent, contrasting 

 strongly with what I have observed on the Perthshire moun- 

 tains, where every few hundred feet of elevation produces a 

 fresh species, and an ascent of 3000 feet seems an easy task 

 when the stages are marked by Blandina, Cassiope, Ericetaria, 

 Alpinalis, and finally Trepidaria flutters at your feet as you 

 step on the topmost ridge. 



Insects are more abundant upon the slopes of Cross-Craig 

 and Grayvel than in the Valley of Loch Rannoch at their 

 feet, but a very short ascent above the teeming Vale of 

 Powerscourt, up the sides of any of the surrounding moun- 

 tains, takes the climber into a region where all traces of 

 insect life have disappeared. Difference of soil, and con- 

 sequently of vegetation, has no doubt something to do with 



VOL. V. I 



